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Eight-month-old Daniela (right) is the first Cameroonian child to get the jab.
The world’s first routine vaccination program against malaria has been launched in Cameroon and is planned to save the lives of thousands of children across Africa.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 600,000 people die from malaria each year in Africa.
At least 80% of deaths are children under 5 years old.
Cameroon provides the RTS,S vaccine free of charge to all infants up to 6 months of age.
Patients require a total of four doses.
While the rollout is undoubtedly a relief and a life saver, the relatively low efficacy rate means it is not a “magic bullet”, argues Willis Akwale of the End Malaria Council Kenya. do.
But for health workers, it is an important “additional tool” in the fight against malaria, said Shalom N’Dula, a Cameroonian doctor who helped lead the rollout in his country.
“We have the ability to significantly reduce the number of cases and deaths from malaria and accelerate the elimination of malaria,” he told the BBC.
The development of the RTS,S vaccine took 30 years of research by British pharmaceutical company GSK.
The World Health Organization, which approved the vaccine, hailed the launch in Cameroon as a historic moment in the global fight against mosquito-borne diseases.
This follows successful pilot campaigns in Kenya, Ghana and Malawi.
Twenty other countries aim to roll out the program this year, according to Gavi, the global vaccine alliance. These include Burkina Faso, Liberia, Niger and Sierra Leone.
According to the WHO, Cameroon records approximately 6 million malaria cases each year and 4,000 deaths in health facilities, most of them children under the age of five.
Children aged six months in the 42 districts with the highest morbidity and mortality rates will receive four vaccinations by the age of two.
In 2021, Africa accounted for 95% of global malaria cases and approximately 96% of related deaths.
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